If These Walls Could Talk
by averageeverydayinsanegoddess
Summary: ON HOLD GUYS
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

"She has to be shitting me. This cannot be it." Lily muttered as she looked up at the house that she'd apparently 'inherited' from her uncle Ben Harmon. She'd been the only living relative and he was the last owner of the house, so he'd left it to her.

Actually, he'd left it to her mother, who was his sister.. But her mother, Kate, well.. Kate was dead. She'd been dead for a little over two years now. So by default, the house she sat parked in front of in the pouring rain automatically went to her..

And sitting here looking at it, she got shivers down her spine.

She licked her lips as she raked a hand through long black hair and looked at the time on her cell phone quickly.

The realtor was supposed to be here to give her a key and the paperwork she had to fill out showing she'd agreed to take possession of the house.

"Wow.. Okay, so maybe it's not that bad?" she mused aloud as headlights cut through the darkening skies and a Range Rover came to a stop behind her, the motor was still running as the rather plain and dumpy looking older woman got out and walked to her car.

Lily flicked the cigarette she'd been smoking out the window of her car and then got out, walking to where the realtor stood, just outside the gates. She held out her hands expectantly and then asked, "So that's it then?"

"Yes, that's pretty much all you're required to do, Ms. Harmon. You're sure you want to take the house.. Your uncle and aunt, your cousin.. They all died on or nearby the property." the realtor pointed out as Lily rolled her eyes and said in a blunt no nonsense tone, "Lady, I'm 21.. I do not want or need student housing costs added to the already steep cost of going to college. Nor do I wish to actually have to deal with annoying roommates, which I'd have to do if I lived in the dorms." as the realtor gave her an uncertain look and then said quietly, "If you're sure.."

"I'm sure." Lily said in a rush as she rubbed her arms. She'd just now heard something whispering her name. It almost sounded like her uncle, it almost sounded as if he were pleading with her to leave now and never look back.

She didn't listen, of course.

She'd never really followed the rules or did the whole obedience thing very well though. And she certainly did not believe in ghosts or life after death or anything like that.

She sighed as she gave the woman a wave as the woman pulled out of the driveway quickly almost as if she couldn't get away from the house fast enough. Then she stood leaned against a brick column on the porch stoop and looked up at the moon as it peeked through the heavy storm clouds that gathered in the night sky.

"Guess I better get my ass inside." she muttered after a few long minutes, stubbing out her cigarette with the toe of her red leather stiletto. She walked through the front door after unlocking it and jokingly she called out, "Honey I'm home." laughing at herself, shaking her head.

She set down her bags in a room upstairs, the room she'd chosen for herself, not one that'd been used previously by her aunt and uncle or her cousin of course because that would've been creepy and downright disrespectful, but a smaller one with a great view of the back yard, a big bay window.

She winced at the drab blue paint on the walls and then said quietly, "Ick.. I'm gonna have to repaint." as she slid her feet out of her stilettos, discarded them near the bathroom door. She straightened up and for a split second she stood frozen as she saw a guy (or thought she did) standing behind her in the mirror.

"It's gotta be a hallucination.. It's a jet lag thing. I'll get sleep and I'll be totally fine in the am.. But first.. My wine has gotta come in. And my other stuff." Lily muttered as she took down her long black hair, shook it out a little.

She heard her name being whispered again, but naturally, she wrote that off too.. Because haunted houses weren't real, ghosts did not exist and all that other crap. There was a perfectly logical explanation for the two smallish weird things that'd happened to her in the space of five or ten minutes under this roof.

But was it always this damn cold in the house? Really?

She wondered that as she rubbed her arms and walked out to her car, popping the trunk, taking out her few possessions she'd been able to fit in her car, a bottle of wine and a wine glass.

She shut the front door to the house behind her and flopped down on a sofa, popped open the wine bottle, poured herself a glass as she turned on Nickelback on her Iphone 5, began to dance around the living room a little.

And she was totally oblivious to what lie ahead for her.

Because if she had even one tenth of a clue?

She probably would've ran like hell.

Or she'd have at least given that option a moment's consideration...

Ben materialized in the noisy den of his former earthly home and sighed, shook his head. He'd made the realtor swear she wouldn't track down his relatives.. He knew it'd been a mistake to write his sister and her daughter into his will..

And he couldn't.. He wouldn't just sit back, watch her die. This house killed everyone.

One way or another, directly or indirectly.

Across the hall, Nora stood in the doorway of the kitchen watching the raven haired 21 year old with a mixture of fascination and amusement.. Who was she?

Had she _**bought**_ this house? Was this new girl another chance for Nora to have the child that she'd been denied at long last?

She'd have to talk to Tate, get him to work on that. After what Vivian did to the twins, dying and the twins dying with her.. She needed the chance. She deserved it, damn it.

Ben spoke from behind her, "That.. Would be my niece Lily. She's always been a bit of a wild child." a small fond smile forming on his fave as Violet said quietly, "Why the hell did the realtor find her? I thought you promised, Dad.. You weren't going to put them in the will, just in case that realtor tried to unload the place on your family."

"I thought that your aunt and Lil could use the money, Violet."

"She's got a point, Ben.. You know what this place does.. Look what it did to us!" Vivian said as she shook her head in disappointment at her husband, adding quietly, "And what about Tate.. If he gets his hooks in.."

"We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen." Ben said as Violet sighed to herself quietly.. Not that she was Tate's biggest fan but.. she did feel that he deserved a chance. After all, he had tried.. It'd been wrong, but he'd tried to become a good person.

"Maybe he'll leave her alone." she muttered as Ben laughed and said "Not likely. We should just get ready to intervene."

"Dad."

"I should have, when he started sniffing around you."

The house was getting a new resident.. The new resident was in for one hell of an experience.. But would it end tragically this time?


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The sounds of Master Of Puppets by Metallica still played faintly in the room he used to call his bedroom as the girl who inhabited it now dozed halfway on and halfway off the bed. She'd stayed up nearly all night, the moving van had arrived just after she'd uncorked the second damn bottle of wine and she'd set right to unpacking the house, her things at least.

So Tate had been watching her in curiousity for a while now. He crept close to the bed and pulled her legs up, put them on the bed and shook his head when she rolled over onto her side and muttered something drunkenly in her sleep. She was 21 years old for the love of Christ and she still sucked her damn thumb in her sleep. He leaned down and whispered her name quietly, he'd found it on her drivers license when he went through her purse out of sheer boredom about 3 hours ago.

The raven haired female shot up in bed and looked around with wide eyes but she didn't see him of course, because he'd ducked back into the walk in closet next to the bathroom and hidden himself from view. He was laughing about it now, careful to keep quiet. So she could hear him, just like Violet had been able to.. Violet had a gift though, she'd been able to see and hear him.. A lot of people couldn't unless he made it so that he could be seen. And he could only do that here, in the house, where he was most powerful.

Try it anywhere else and it'd drain his energy and he'd be weak and defenseless for days.

"Who's in my fuckin room?" Lily called out as she slid out of the bed, grabbed a wooden baseball bat. She couldn't afford a gun but if she was in a pinch the bat would work wonders.. It had before. She winced as she thought about that particular night and shook her head as she walked through the room carefully, even kneeling to peek underneath the bed, just like a child all over again.

She felt like she were being watched. Again. It was only the third or fourth time that night. She straightened back up and walked towards the closet but something falling downstairs thankfully kept her from throwing open the doors and discovering Tate standing there with one of her black mini dresses in his hand, peering at it with disdain and curiousity.

She slammed the door to her bedroom behind her after sliding on a black silk kimono over the matching nighty, which she'd been sleeping in and bolted down the stairs, bat raised.. The sound of something falling echoed through the hallway again and she realized it was coming from the kitchen. She tiptoed quietly to the wall next to the doorway of the kitchen and peeked in carefully.

And promptly palmed her face when she realized that it was some kind of stray cat or something, she'd left the damn patio door cracked carelessly. But she screamed bloody murder when the woman stepped out and said quietly, "Ya ought not leave the door wide open, girl."

"You ought not just wander in, woman." Lily said with a sour look as she clutched at the kimono robe with her free hand and asked "Who are you anyway? And why in the hell are you in my kitchen at 2 am?"

"My name's Constance. I happened to see the door open when I was ridin past. Thought I'd stop and shut it.. Didn't realize somebody was livin here now.. When did you move in? Or are you just squattin?"

"If I were, lady, do you really think I'd fucking tell you?" Lily asked with a scowl as Constance gave her a smirk and then asked, "What's your last name, Lily?"

"It's Lily Harmon.. Got this terd from my uncle, he willed it to me." Lily said as she poured herself a generous glass of wine. She deserved it after having the shit scared out of her just now by Constance's just bursting in.. She'd been on edge all night, really.. But you try showering and thinking you saw your cousin standing in the bathroom when you stepped out to grab a towel and see what happens? Or thinking you hear your dead uncle calling your name.

Yeah, it'd been that kind of night. She'd thought her uncle was bullshitting her when he wrote to her and to her mother about this house at the end of his life.. She'd thought he was really losing his mind.. But apparently this house was kind of creepy. Of course, she could have been jsut that drunk, she wasn't writing that option out either, but still...

"Ahh.. Ben's niece.. He talked about ya.. Said ya were gonna come out and visit."

"And I never got to because he offed himself." Lily said quietly, a solemn and sad look on her face for a few moments. Ben had always been like a surrogate father to her, not just an uncle. The man wasn't a saint but he was a good guy.. A sane guy.. She'd wondered all night just why he'd taken his own life a few months after moving out here, into this house..

She knew why Violet might have, Violet had battled depression, like she had herself, for years. But her uncle? That was a stretch.

"It was tragic.. Anyway, now that I know you're in here, I'm gonna go. Keep that damn door shut at night, girl.. Believe me when I say it's for your own good. Wouldn't want anything strange to happen to ya during the night, with you living here all alone now would we?" Constance asked with a slightly less than friendly smirk as she studied the girl intently.

Lily gave her a look and sipping the wine she said quietly, "I dare anyone to try me." as she gave the woman a slightly less than friendly smirk also. Who the hell did this woman think she was, really?

Then when the woman was gone, it hit her.. She'd spoken to her aunt Viv on the phone before about the woman that had just left. "I'm changing the god damn locks. I swear to Christ, I'm changing the god damn locks. First thing in the morning." Lily said as she flipped the light switch in the kitchen, darkening the room then shut and locked the patio door.

As she walked down the hall, however, she almost screamed in terror when out of the corner of her eye she saw something walk past. And she grabbed the bat (and her wine bottle, fuck drinking out of the glass by now she figured, when she clearly needed the whole damn bottle) and took off down the hall after what she thought she'd just seen.

When she stepped into the room she thought she'd seen it go into, however, nothing was there. She shrugged and went upstairs, back to bed.

Probably just some kind of wild animal or something, a rat or a squirrel maybe.. She'd look around for signs of animals tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

She'd been living in Murder House for a week and she'd spent at least ninety percent of that week explaining away things that happened. And not just your average things either. Some really, really creepy stuff was happening in this house, she was beginning to wonder if she should call in a priest or something, even though she wasn't really a firm believer in the supernatural. Or in a priest blessing this terd of a house and taking away the looming cloud of darkness that seemed to hang over it heavily.

It was getting so that she couldn't even leave and come back without feeling a really heavy tension settle within her. And the house's one degree above mortuary temperature problem didn't help either.

She'd called a repairman and the guy was baffled by it, really. Said the thermostat was in excellent working condition as he s tood in her den and looked at her as if she were totally losing it. She probably did look like a nutcase standing there in a button down shirt that came to about mid thigh, a pair of black leggings with a bottle of red wine clenched firmly in her fist. She'd been drinking a lot more lately, because if she drank she didn't jump at every sound or something, she was a lot calmer.

If a week did that much to her, she was beginning to wonder if she had the balls to make it beyond a week. She was seriously beginning to doubt her sanity because twice this one week alone, she'd woken up during the night to the sensation of someone's hand trailing slowly up her inner thigh. And that creeped her out more than anything, because she'd think back to what her aunt told her about the dreams she used to have while living here.

"Are you sure it's not busted?" she asked the repairman one more time as he looked at her and then said quietly, "I've checked the damn thing three times, ma'am. It's not busted."

"But it's fucking morgue temperature cold in here. At all times." Lily said quietly as the man nodded then shrugging said "This was always a weird house.. Heard all kinds of stuff about it. People die here, girl.. You sure you wanna call this place home?"

"I can't afford anywhere else or anything else, sir.. hello, college student?" Lily grumbled as she wrote the man a check for his services and walked him to the door. She'd been just about to shut it when a pair of males walked up onto the porch, eyed her with raised brows.

"We're Chad.."

"And Patrick. And this place could definitely use some landscaping.. Might improve the atmosphere." Patrick added as he gave his domestic partner a look and Chad spoke up to ask, "Might I see the interior? I've dabbled in decoration." as Lily laughed for a few seconds then muttered something and stepped out of the doorway, chugged a little more of the red wine as she called out to the two men in a nosy manner, "Are you guys like.. Together? Sorry, I was just wondering, it was so cute the way you finished each other's sentence."

The two men gave each other strained looks. This house was supposed to be their do over. They'd moved in to fix problems with their relationship. Instead, the problems got worse and were only reaching a boiling point when the little prick they knew as Tate Langdon killed them both. "We are."

"But you're having issues, huh?" Lily asked, Chad gaping at her for a moment as she explained with a shrug, "Psychology minor, man.. I also dabble in reading body language." Lily mused with a smirk playing on her plump red stained lips as she bit her thumb in thought and then asked quietly, "Say I let you guys work your magic.. What's it gonna cost? Because I don't start work until next week.. And I won't make much when i do, I can only work part time because of college. And partying, duh, cannot forget partying." while raking her hand through her long black hair and pacing a little.

Chad and Patrick looked at each other. They were just here to keep Tate away from Lily, they'd promised Ben and Vivian they'd do that. And Vivian was concerned with the amount of alcohol her niece was consuming, the fact that Lily went out to bars almost every single night, or she had in the week she'd been living in California.

Ben was worried too, but Vivian seemed really worried, apparently Lily was like another daughter to her. And she'd told them that Lily's mother, Kate was an on and off alcoholic who used to party all the time, popped sedatives like they were skittles. Like Lily was apparently doing now for some unknown reason.

"How about we do it because we never got to finish the job when Vivian hired us initially? We still have most of the money she paid us left, actually.." the two males lied easily as Patrick added, "For starts.. Please tell me there's a mower of some sort around here?"

Lily shrugged, took a long swallow from the bottle of red wine and winced as she felt the hangover she was trying to drink away beginning to edge in.. She seemed to get these god awful migraines lately, she seemed to always wake up in the dead of night hearing voices.. her mother had several nervous breakdowns, claimed that people she couldn't see talked to her during the worst of those breakdowns. Lily feared it was happening to her also.

Patrick chuckled and edged out of the room leaving Chad and Lily to discuss interior options. And twice during this time Lily got the distinct feeling that she was being watched or something. But when she looked up and tried to locate the source of the staring sensation, as usual, she'd see something all black move out of the corner of her eye.

And then it would be gone.

This house was really getting to her lately. She was only a week into living here and already she was seriously doubting her sanity.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Like clockwork, the dream started the second her eyes shut after she lie down in bed. Her back arched as she felt the sensation vividly, of hands roaming slowly up her thighs. "Mmm.."

She could see him in her mind, clearly. He was gorgeous, warm chocolatey brown eyes, slightly porcelain skin, heart shaped lips.. His hair was this brownish blond. The way his hands moved along her body slowly was enough to drive her wild, and when he leaned down and sank his teeth into her neck, the sweet spot just between her shoulderblade and her collarbone and he started to suck and nip at her skin she honestly felt her toes curling. She woke herself up just shy of 3 am, like all the other nights before this one, gripping at the bedsheets almost.

Tonight, however, when she woke up, something was off. The entire dream felt real. She honestly felt like she'd been having the best sex of her life just now and a scowl of frustration formed on her face when she realized upon awakening (and landing hard on her ass on the hardwood floors when she went to roll on her side in the bed and catch her breath and fell right off) that it had in fact been just a dream.

The whispering started again, her name was being chanted. The man saying it almost sounded crazed.. he kept telling her to come to the basement. She knew from the bits and pieces of what her uncle Ben had dug up on this place that the basement was the stuff of nightmare fuel. Some doctor, coincidentally, the man who'd built this terd of a house, this portal to hell she currently resided in, well.. He was a drunk and a shitty doctor to boot.. And apparently, to his high maintenance wife Nora, he was a shitty husband on top of all that. He lost his license somehow, probably all the damn Absinthe she heard about being stashed away in a secret chamber of the wine cellar next to the actual basement.. Anyway, the story, as compiled into her uncle Ben's old patient log, by his own hand, was that the doctor got desperate for cash.

He started to do abortions right out of his own basement. And he got a patient whos boyfriend apparently didn't like the fact that she'd had an abortion, or he just didn't like the practice in general.. Either way, he'd broken in, taken the Montgomery's son and carved the infant up. And only then did Nora, the doctors wife realize that she wanted to be a mother..

Dr. Montgomery spent countless hours, months and days in that dark and dank smelling chamber of death and finally, one day, he came to Nora and told her to come down and look at what he'd done for her.

Nora was horrified to find that he'd somehow managed to 'resurrect' their son.. And that this thing was alive.. It wasn't human now, not by any means.. But it was alive. And then it turned on them..

Either way it went, knowing that story was more than enough to keep Lily safely the hell away from the basement. This voice, however, it seemed to insist that she come on down. That it'd be fun. She could have all the Absinthe she could handle.

"Gonna take a hell of a lot more than absinthe, casper." Lily grumbled sleepily as her arm reached out, felt around clumsily on the nightstand next to her bed and she found the lamp, flipped it on. She blinked in the harsh light and made her usual vow to never drink again. Or study all night hopped up on caffeine for at least a night or two in a row.

This all had to be triggered by lack of sleep. There had to be some kind of logical and scientific explanation for the erotic dreams, the whispering, the cold spots in the damn place.. Or the odd shadowy things she'd see moving about the halls often. She'd been living here almost a month now and despite all this, she was staying. Normal people would've left.

"Normal people have a fucking place to go and more than ten bucks in their bank account." Lily mused aloud at the thought as she rubbed her eyes, let them adjust to the darkened room around her. She thought she saw a shadow, the shape of a person. Her hand went to the drawer in her nightstand and she felt around for the gun that Luke, the friendly security man from a few weeks ago stopped by and gave to her, stating that he'd 'feel better knowing she had a firearm'.

Frankly, she figured he was just sort of trying to get into her panties, more or less. Men tended to do that.

"If there's someone in this god damn room and I find out? I'm gonna blast a hole in your skull." Lily grumbled as she heard the whispers again, this time a female. This time the woman said that the bullet would be wasted.

"Fuck if I care." she grumbled as she rolled her eyes at herself. She was seriously doing this, lying here at almost 3:25 am conversing with voices that for all she knew could actually be in her head?

She'd heard all the stories about this portal to hell she called home. She knew that she'd lost her uncle, three cousins and her aunt while they were living in this place. Maybe that'd sort of instilled a paranoia in her.

It'd definitely sparked her curiousity, it was kind of why she'd went to her Psych professor and asked to do her thesis on Murder House, and the effects of people living in a place publicly deemed 'haunted'.. Maybe ghosts and ghost stories were a trick of the mind.

As soon as she thought that she heard him speak to her. "Trick of the mind my ass."

"Who's there?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Lily?" Tate answered from his spot in the room, just out of her line of sight, just beyond the partially closed bathroom door. He heard her slipping out of bed and just as her hand turned the knob on the bathroom door, he vanished, emerged in the basement as he practically rolled on the floor in laughter.

Maybe if her scared her badly enough she'd get the fuck out of his mind and his house. Maybe then his life would go back to normal and he could resume his anger and angst at Violet's decision to cross over and abandon him like everyone else in his life had.

It was worth a try, right?

Shame it wasn't working and that deep down that wasn't what he really wanted now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Mild mentions of ghost sex in this chapter. No, it's not real, he hasn't.. I mean not yet.. But when she's being 'touched' in her dreams, he actually is touching her. Just hasn't done the nastay yet. He's mind gaming her too, so.. Anyway, just a heads up. I'm kind of bringing elements of evil tate into play here. Sorry if it sucks.**

CHAPTER FIVE

She tugged at the zipper on a black strapless bodycon dress as she bit her lower lip, stared at herself in the mirror while slipping on her stilettos. The earrings her aunt and uncle got her for graduation completed the outfit, a pair of small diamond studs.

Tonight, she had a date. She'd met a guy while working one of her two jobs, and he was taking her out to some Italian place to eat. And he'd probably try and get her drunk off her ass and get her into bed. Given the dreams she'd been having, well..

It'd be nice to have a human in the bed with her instead of mental imagery of sex with a guy who while beautiful, most likely did not exist. He was most likely a figment of her imagination, she'd concluded, and she'd broached the question in her thesis paper, even, if this figment of her imagination could've been created by the stories about this house? Or something similar even..

The question still remained unanswered.

The doorbell rang downstairs and the lights started going crazy around that time also as Lily grumbled and swore while looking up, waiting. She'd just counted to five and out all the lights and power in the house went. The temperature in the room dropped at least five degrees, it was enough for her to hug herself and shiver a little.

And then she heard someone speaking in a whisper, she felt a pressure as if someone's hand was resting on her hip, felt a slight pinch as if someone had just bitten into her neck, was now sucking as if they were going to leave a mark. "That's fucking it. I don't care how much it costs, I'm having this fuckin house exorcised."

"But why, Lily.. You and me, we have fun every single night, don't we?" the voice whispered in her ear as she felt a sharp pain in her neck again. She bit her lower lip and kept repeating "Not real, not real, not fuckin real" to herself aloud like it was a mantra or something and finally, the guy who was knocking on the door downstairs still, her date, called out from the entryway, "Lil? We goin or not?"

"Gimme a second, Luken."

"He's not gonna be half as good as me. What the hell kinda name is Luken anyway? I bet it's a fag's name.. Does Luken make you so wet you have to change the sheets every other day?" the voice stated as she looked at herself in the mirror then shook her head, blinked. If she stared into the mirror long enough, she could almost make out a hazy shape standing behind her, right behind her.

She gasped when she felt warmth on her neck almost as if someone had blown on it.

Tate smirked to himself. He could almost smell her fear. If she was going to torture his dreams and keep staying here, making him want what he had with Violet all over again, but with her this time, then he was going to scare the living shit out of her as much as possible.

Because he didn't want to feel things. He wanted to be empty, cold. He wanted it all back the way it was before Violet came into his life. And he didn't want to want Lily in his life either. She'd just do what her cousin had and abandon him.

Everyone abandoned him.

"What the fuck?" she hissed as her hand went to her neck. She'd felt it, it was not a figment of her imagination. She grabbed her keys and took off down the stairs the whispered taunt ringing in her ears. Her date stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs and he asked, "You okay?"

"Let's get the fuckin hell out of here. I'm good, just ready to go." Lily forced herself to smile and appear okay. In reality, she was freaking out. What the hell was going on in this damn house, anyway?

She locked the door behind her and stood on the porch for a moment, gathered her wits. Her date waited impatiently. She looked back at the house and blinked as she could've sworn that she saw the curtain in her room part.

And a guy standing in it. Not just any guy either.. The guy from her very racy and x r ated dreams lately. She started to say something but she thought about it before she opened her mouth. She didn't want to start off on the wrong foot, have this guy thinking she was batshit insane.

"Are you sure you're okay?" her date asked, annoyed, as he looked over at her, saw her looking back at her house. She sighed and muttered quietly, "I'm good. Just drive, okay?" and twisted a strand of long black hair around her fingertip.

She was starting to wonder lately.. Could there possibly be such a thing as ghosts and stuff? Could Murder House actually have the ability to drive you totally insane?

Or was it all in her head and she'd just never known it until the paranoia that came with living in the damn hell hole came into play?


	6. Chapter 6 Pt 1

**And now, for those of you patiently waiting for the two to meet face to face, here it goes. Also, every now and then, to pay sort of homage to Tate and violet, because I loved them but let's face it, logically, it couldn't have worked with them not after everything that happened. There will be a few flashbacks her and there of Tate and Violet. Those will be in italics.**

**I wanna thank everyone who's been reading and reviewing. I'm glad people like this, I really tried my best. Sorry if it's OOC or something. **

CHAPTER SIX

Tonight was the night. It was Halloween, it was when Tate was at his most powerful. It was the peak night for paranormal activity. And if she were really a medium like his mother's nutjob of a psychic friend claimed that both she and Violet were and had been.. She'd be able to see him right off the bat.

The two fairies were in the house tonight, they'd all apparently planned some form of Halloween festivities for the night and currently, Patrick was in the yard, throwing up a few last minute decorations as Chad and Lily worked on decorating the interior. Nothing bugged Tate more lately, than her ignoring him when he spoke to her. Except the fact that not only did he have to fight against Luke that security bastard, but also her uncle and aunt, these two fairies in the house currently and naturally, Moira.

Nobody stuck in the damn house with him, or crossed over but coming back to visit regularly, save for Violet and Hayden of course, seemed to want him within a foot of Lily. So far, Violet and Hayden were the only two on his actual side. This was not counting Nora, of course, but even she was a little up in arms about Tate wanting to be around this girl so much. Mostly, of course, for his sake. She worried Lily might also reject Tate and that he couldn't handle a second time around.

Lily thought she felt the temperature in the room drop a few degrees but she rubbed her arms, slapped on a smirk and played things off as if nothing happened. She continued setting up the refreshments area, and poured herself a generous glass of wine and discarded the black stilettos she wore as she flopped onto the couch in the living area and said to Chad, "I'm done. I cannot move anymore in those damn things. I love looking sexy but damn, did the things have to be so fucking uncomfortable?" she mused aloud as she took a long sip of the wine, then swirled the glass around in her hands, beneath her nose. Chad chuckled and nodded to the glass, a small concerned look in his eyes as he asked, "You're starting before the party guests?'

She gestured wide and said "I live in the portal to Hell, Chad. Wouldn't you take up the bottle?" as she laughed a little and rubbed her neck. Rob Zombie played in the background and she heard the doorbell ringing. She giggled and held up a french manicured nail as she did so and said "I'm gonna go grab my mask." as Chad nodded, gave her a thumbs up then said "You go on up. You're the star of the party, the lady of the house.. Besides, you were telling Patrick and I you never got a prom in high school.. The entrance, m'lady, will be yours." Chad bowed, the feather from his Muskeeter costume's hat almost touching the plate of chips which made Lily giggle and nod, smile and say quietly, "Thanks.. You guys are really great friends. I mean that. Sometimes it kinda feels like you guys are guardian angels or something." before making a retreat up the stairs to change into the costume and mask she was wearing for the party tonight.

They'd went with Masquerade as a theme, luckily enough for Tate, so getting in in a costume he stole off of some dumbass around his own previous deceased age on their way to crash a frat party was easy as taking candy from a baby.. Getting in and getting past the fairies guarding the door and the other entourage Ben and Vivian apparently had on their side was going to be a lot harder.

Or he'd thought at least. Chad stepped aside, for once not looking really closely at him. If he had, Tate was almost sure that he'd have to bounce the bastard down the stairs and tonight he wanted to be in a good mood. Tonight was the night she might just finally see him after so many weeks of slow and agonizing torment on his part, and an iron clad resolve and several erotic nights on her part.

Like he'd done with Violet, their first meeting, this one too now had to be special. Because, damn it, she'd wormed her way in and he couldn't get her back out. He had to, somehow, push her off of that pedestal she'd managed to get herself put on, by him.

With the other guests filtering in, distracting Chad and Patrick, giving him the perfect chance to do so, Tate stole up the stairwell quietly, and pushed open the door to the room Lily slept in. His old room. He'd been just about to lift his mask when she stepped out of the adjoining bathroom and his better sense kicked in. Now was not the time. Instead of lifting the mask, he stood there, leaned casually in the doorway, watched her as she dressed again.

Later. Midnight, maybe. He wanted to make an impression. He wanted to make a bold statement. And more importantly, he wanted to finally at long last, even the playing field between them and show her he was dominant. She would not get away with ignoring him anymore.

Her eyes caught his in the mirror's reflection and she froze, crimson red lipstick midway to it's journey to her lips. "What the fuck?" she gasped as she looked at an apparently creepy party guest.

Did she really have any neighbors who weren't creepy, she wondered a split second later as the male wandered quietly into the room and sat down on the edge of her unmade bed, remarked casually, "Pale pink satin sheets, huh?"

"Who the fuck are you? What the fuck are you doing in MY room?" Lily roared, her words slurring just a bit as she prepared to scream. But before she could even get the scream out, he had his hand over her mouth. "Don't you recognize me, babe?" he asked quietly as his tongue slowly slid down her neck just seconds before he bit down, left a mark. And that's when things got really, really weird. Because when he bit down on her neck, see, she got this rush of very intense emotions. Things passed by her eyes and through her mind in a blur that was faster literally than the speed of sound. He gave her hair a yank and said quietly, "Nice costume.. What are ya, a hooker?"

"I'm a cabaret girl, asshole. What are you? A prick in a skull mask?" she spat as he gave her hair another good yank and tried to get his own head around the things he'd seen, felt, heard even when he'd bitten her just now. Had that been what his mother's nutjob psychic friend was talking about before? If so, he wanted it taken back. He wanted to break away from the things he felt towards Lily, damn it, not be trapped by them, not get left again when she saw past his 'front' and deeper down and the darkness scared her maybe just a little too much.

"I fucking asked you a question." she growled as she turned herself around in his grasp and looked up at him. Something about his eyes.. She'd seen them before, she was almost certain of it. In fact, now that she thought about it, his voice sounded familiar too.. Her name was called up the stairs, and for reasons unknown to her, she grabbed the guy's hand and pulled them into the bathroom, shutting the door.

Seconds later, her drunken asshole of a boyfriend wandered in, calling her name, swearing when he couldn't find her, saying really nasty things. Tate's gaze landed on hers in the darkness of the closet and he took the bottle of tequila she held in her hands, took a huge sip of it, wiped his lips as he grimaced. "Any reason you're hiding from that fuckin fairy?" he asked after a few moments as Lily mumbled something, he wasn't able to understand her and shook her head. "He's a prick when he's drinking.. I swear he's not like this when he's sober.. Thing of it is.." Lily said as she snatched the bottle back, gave the man sitting to her right an angry glare, "he's always drinking lately. But he's this talent agent and I really, really need work.. I need a portfolio. I need money to live in this hell hole, pay for school. Hell, I've even considered stri..." she stopped herself shy of anymore full disclosure on her part and then said through gritted teeth and pointed out, "You have no business.. You won't tell me your damn name even. Do I know you? I mean.. Your eyes.."

_'You've seen 'em a thousand times, Lily, in your dreams.' _he thought to himself but blinked when she turned to look at him, just stared at him a few moments before shaking her head. Sure, her grandmother was always talking about how she and Violet had been special babies.. She'd also said a ton of other crap too. The woman was an Alzeheimers patient, she could not be taken seriously at least half of the time when Lily had been a kid.

"Thought you wanted to be a psychologist?" Tate asked as Lily gave him a strange look then said quietly, "I wanted to be a dancer or an actress. Shrink's just a job I wanna do to pay the bills.. I'd be helping people like me and my... Nevermind. You are a stranger and I don't owe you an explanation." before taking another pull on the bottle.

"He's gone now."

"I know. I'm just buying time. Don't wanna have to deal with the asshole, okay?" Lily admitted as Tate pulled her up from the closet floor after standing and said "C'mon. You won't have to." angrier at himself than he had been since this obsession with her began. Why couldn't he just push her away? He knew how this would all end, already.

Or he was pretty damn certain he would.


End file.
